Olefin polymerizations such as ethylene polymerization are frequently carried out using monomer, diluent and catalyst and optionally co-monomers in a loop reactor. The polymerization is usually performed under slurry conditions, wherein the product consists usually of solid perfidies and is in suspension in a diluent. The slurry contents of the reactor are circulated continuously with a pump to maintain efficient suspension of the polymer solid particles in the liquid diluent, the product being often taken off by means of settling legs which operate on a batch principle to recover the product. Settling legs are used to increase the solids concentration of the slurry finally recovered as product slurry. The product is further either transferred to another reactor or discharged to a flash tank, through flash lines, where most of the diluent and unreacted monomers are flashed off and recycled. This recycling may be done either through recompression and reinjection to the reactor with or without intermediate purification. An important operational cost is linked to this fluid effluent recycling. The polymer particles are dried, additives can be added and finally the polymer is extruded and pelletized. This technique has enjoyed international success with millions of tons of ethylene polymers being so produced annually.
Optimal behavior of the settling legs is reached when the quantity of recovered polymer is maximized with respect to the amount of fluid effluent that must be recycled, so that the recycling cost may be minimized for a given production rate. Classically, operation of the plant is based on attempting to discharge the same amount of slurry from all settling legs in order to afford equivalent pressure drops when discharging each leg, however this operation may be far from optimal.
Various alternatives to conventional settling legs are known. For example, WO 01/05842 describes an apparatus for removing concentrated slurry from a flowing stream of slurry in a conduit characterized by a channel in an outlet area of the conduit, the outlet being adapted to continuously remove slurry.
EP 0891990 describes an olefin polymerization process wherein the product slurry is recovered by means of a continuous product take off, more in particular by means of an elongated hollow appendage provided on the reactor. Said hollow appendage being in direct fluid communication with a heated flash line and thus being adapted for continuous removal of product slurry.
However the above-described apparatus and processes have the disadvantage that the suspension withdrawn from the reactor still contains a large amount of diluent and of other reactants, such as the monomer, which it is then necessary to subsequently separate from the polymer particles and to treat for the purpose of reusing it in the reactor.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a polymerization process occurring in a loop reactor wherein discharge of the settled polymer slurry is optimized. Mother object of the invention is to provide processes wherein the settling efficiencies of the polymer slurry and its further discharge is optimized. A yet further object of the present invention is to decrease the fluid effluent throughput at a given polymer production rate by the use of optimized discharge. It is another object to provide a loop reactor having optimized settling legs.